In June, Apple Senior Vice President – and the creator of the Apple Store – Ron Johnson announced that he would be departing November 1st to become the CEO of JC Penney. That day has come and Apple has made the exit official by removing the veteran executive from their Apple Leadership website. Notably, no replacement has been put up yet, but we will likely hear some news about that soon, eh?
MG Siegler reports that Google is “on the verge” of releasing a native Gmail client for the iPhone through the App Store. Gmail users have long complained over the lack of push Gmail for the iPhone, which this native application is said to bring. Siegler says the application will likely also bring Priority Inbox and one click starring. Of course, nobody says that this application has been approved or will be approved by Apple, so until then, don’t get too excited.
We’ve gotten word that inside Apple there are Apple TVs running the Hulu Plus app natively. The app is feature complete and ready to roll out to Apple TV users on current builds. In fact, it has been ready for at least a month and development is now on hold.
While there are no technical issues standing in the way of the Hulu Plus release on Apple TV, there appear to be some political ones. At some level at Apple, there appears to be some consideration that the Hulu Plus app could eat into iTunes TV sales on the Apple TV. Where Netflix tends to run older programming, iTunes is the Apple TV’s only outlet for current TV programming.
Hulu Plus is available on the iPad and other iOS devices but unlike many other content apps, you can’t AirPlay them to an Apple TV like Apple’s own iTunes videos. Additionally, you can use an HDMI cable to watch the iOS Hulu Plus through an iPad on your HDTV, but mysteriously only in Standard definition, not the native HD Hulu or iTunes quality. Plus, who needs an HDMI-tethered solution?
Adding to the political troubles, Hulu was recently trying to sell itself to players including Apple competitor Google (and Apple itself) but no bidders were willing to bid high enough. Perhaps Apple wanted to make sure that Hulu Plus didn’t turn into a Trojan Horse for one of its competitors?
Hulu Plus was originally barred from all TV platforms, but giving hope to Apple TV users, it recently appeared in HD on the $59 Roku (above) and even a few smaller platforms like the very capable Western Digital’s TV Live (pictured below).
You know the non-existant “iTV” that Steve Jobs hinted about in the Walter Isaacson Bio? Yeah, it is already getting “mocked up” by one of our favorite artists Guilherme M. Schasiepen on Flickr. Check the gallery below.
This week, we are co-sponsoring iPhone 4S + Monster Accessory Pack giveaways with Monster Cable. You can win the iPhone 4S + Accessory Pack from Monster Cable by liking their Facebook page and entering their contest here: https://www.facebook.com/monstercable. Enter once for a chance to win every week until December 23rd.
Additionally, this week only, we at 9to5Mac are offering you guys the Monster Accessory Pack which can be won by liking our page https://www.facebook.com/9to5mac.
Monster’s 8x iPhone 4S Sweepstakes: What better way to fully enjoy Monster Cable’s lineup of mobile-friendly accessories than on the supreme gadget of today – the iPhone 4S! Monster is giving its fans the chance to win an iPhone 4S & Monster Accessory Pack every week for eight straight weeks! In addition to the iPhone 4S, the Monster Accessory Pack includes our sleek ($300) Turbine In-Ear Monitors, the static-free Monster iCable 800, the convenient Monster Mobile PowerPlug Dual USB 700, and the practical CleanTouch Pen! So go ahead, click the button… and remember, you only have to enter once and you’re then eligible to win each of the 8 weeks! (sorry this is for US residents only).
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Research firm Canalys in its new report ranked Taiwanese handset maker HTC (owned by the Formosa Plastics Group conglomerate) the leading smartphone vendor in the United States. The finding is based on the reported third-quarter shipments by major phone makers including HTC, Samsung and Apple. And, per-country performance estimates stemming from historic trends. As you know, Apple sold 17.07 million iPhones during the September quarter, a 16 percent sequential decline the company blamed on the rumor-mill hype. Meanwhile, Samsung passed Apple by an estimated ten million units and HTC today reported shipments of 13.2 million handsets.
As for the United States, Canalys estimated HTC’s shipments at 5.77 million devices (5.7 million handsets under its own brand and 70,000 units with T-Mobile branding). Apple shipped an estimated 4.6 million iPhones in the quarter (4.9 million for Samsung). In all, HTC in the September quarter was the leading phone vendor in the United States, Samsung was second (plus #1 smartphone maker globally) and Apple ranked third. Canalys analyst Chris Jones said:
However you count it, HTC has become a deserved leader in the US smart phone market. This is an awesome achievement for HTC, which has built a premium brand in a highly competitive market in just a few short years. It now has a strong range of 4G Android products, with devices ranged by each of the major carriers, and offers some of the most compelling and differentiated products found on the platform today.
There is, however, a difference between selling and shipping. As for Samsung’s numbers, these could be called into question to a certain extent because the company stopped divulging smartphone and tablet sales back in June, citing competition from Apple. Let’s not forget the mobile space is a fickle one and prone to seasonalities and that Apple could regain its crown during the holiday quarter. That’s not to say HTC’s lead in the United States isn’t well-deserved, quite the contrary…
Poor battery performance is one of the major teething issues that’s been plaguing early iPhone 4S adopters who are flocking to Apple Support Communities forum in search for answers. Apple has remained mum on the matter thus far. The problem appears to be affecting some iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS users as well, indicating a likely software bug rather than a hardware defect. There’s an interesting remedy that may not work for everybody, even though some folks are reporting seeing an improved battery performance.
It appears that the ‘Setting Time Zone’ function in iOS 5 can lead to excess power drain because the device is repeatedly polling the user’s location in order to set the time zone based on their current location (which is useful when traveling). To disable this functionality, launch the Settings app, navigate to Location Services > System Services and turn off the ‘Setting Time Zone’ option. You should see a purple location services icon in the iPhone’s status bar disappear:
Switching it off may mean that your iPhone will no longer set its own time zone when you travel, but that’s a small price to pay for having your iPhone last more than 12 hours on a full charge. We have tested this method on 4 different iPhone 4s handsets, including an iPhone 4 and an iPhone 3GS. All have reported drastically improved battery life after switching “Setting Time Zone” off.
Yes, it’s a band-aid solution but a helpful one, at least until Apple delivers a fix through a firmware update. While we’re at it, you may also want to disable Location-Based iAds and Diagnostics & Usage and leave only the essential system location services running (Cell Network Search, Compass Calibration and Traffic).
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Gates defends himself slightly but seems smart enough (and secure enough) not to handle the tough words head on.
“Well, Steve and I worked together, creating the Mac. We had more people on it, did the key software for it.”
“So, over the course of the 30 years we worked together, you know, he said a lot of very nice things about me and he said a lot of tough things. I mean, he faced several times at Apple the fact that their products were so premium priced they literally might not stay in the marketplace. So, the fact that we were succeeding with high-volume products, including a range of prices, because of the way we worked with multiple companies, its tough.”
“At various times, he felt beleaguered. He felt like he was the good guy and we were the bad guys. You know, very understandable. I respect Steve, we got to work together. We spurred each other on, even as competitors. None of that bothers me at all.”
It is getting harder and harder to hate Bill.
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I don’t know about you, but this is one freakily awesome Halloween costume. If you have a pair of iPad 2s lying around, you could put them to work and create an illusion of a huge hole in your torso. How? Dead simple, says one Mark Rober, a NASA employee. Just strap one iPad to your front and the other to your back and start a FaceTime chat between them.
The front iPad will display live video feed recorded by the back camera of the device strapped to your back and vice versa. The effect is totally believable, as if someone shot a hole through your body. Spray a little red paint around cutouts in your T-shirt and paint some gruesome flesh parts and you could easily become the star of this year’s Halloween amongst your geek friends.
via Gizmodo
An artist’s rendition of the seamless glass cube Apple Store at New York’s Fifth Avenue.
Credit: The Gothamist.
UPDATE 1 [November 2, 8:15am ET]: The article has been updated with information on the Apple Store app and self-checkout process, included after the break and sourced from a Boy Genius Report story.
Apple is set to unveil an all-new glass cube entrance into its iconic outlet at New York City’s Fifth Avenue, MacRumors has learned. The new look should be unveiled this coming Friday, November 4. The work on remodeling the building hailed as New York’s top photo attraction began this summer. According to permits, changes include using larger, seamless pieces of glass and reducing the number of glass panes from 90 to just 15, or three per side.
Apple is also said to remove protective bollards, install new pavers around the cube’s perimeter and remove and reinstall surrounding water drains. This major makeover will cost six million dollars, nearly matching the seven million dollars they reportedly paid back in 2005 to assemble the now iconic glass cube entrance.
MacRumors also noted that Apple will allow buyers to use the official Apple Store for iOS app (which, shamefully, has yet to be updated with full iPad support) to “utilize self-checkout for purchases of accessories and other shelf-stocked items at the company’s retail stores”. Heylookitseric is mentioning the November 3 launch for the updated program. How is the self-checkout process going to work?
After making a purchase via the Apple Store app using the self-checkout option, you will receive a receipt via email and show it to a store employee as proof of purchase, the publication explains. This option will be available for Macs and iOS devices and is meant as a time-saver for both customers and retail employees in regard to accessories kept on store shelves.
For items kept in the stockroom, such as computers, notebooks and iOS devices, customers will be able to pre-purchase those using the app and complete their transaction with assistance of a store employee carrying an EasyPay device. Another interesting retail update from Apple right after the break.
From 9to5Toys.com:
Looking to get a free Audio copy of the Steve Jobs book (or any book for that matter)? If you don’t feel like shelling out the $35 in addition to whatever you paid for the paper/digital version, Audible.com offers a free audio book with a 14-day membership which allows you to pick up the book for free.
The 3x110MB download is DRM free and can be played on any iOS device or in iTunes among others. Audible.com does offer many membership benefits…
From 9to5Toys.com:
Walmart today lists the iPad 2 in all sizes and varieties with a “Starter Accessory” which include previous generation Smart Covers or USB wall chargers (or $50 iTunes Gift Cards when ordered and picked up site-to-store).
If your shopping tastes take you to Target, you can get a $40 Target GiftCard with iPad 2 purchase (or $450 iPad 1 32GB 3G/GPS). They also have various other iTunes/Apple device offers via circular including this 10% off printable coupon, below:
Mac OS 10.8 testers both inside Apple’s HQ and in the surrounding area of Silicon Valley have been spotted in Web Logs by MacRumors. Indeed, looking at our own logs (above), 10.8 users have been hitting our servers since mid-August, though only in numbers that probably could have been faked.
More recently, however, 10.8 testing has grown more abundant, with testers hitting our site every day including on weekends from non-Apple IP addresses throughout October.
Similar patterns emerged in testing OS 10.7 which leads us to conclude that this is still very early testing and it is likely more than a year before we’ll see even public betas of the OS.
Still, very nice to see Apple’s already working on the next big cat.
AirPlay Mirroring shown with an iPad 2 and an Apple TV
Sources familiar with the future of Mac OS X say that AirPlay Mirroring and an iMessage application are currently in development. Although neither project may see the light of day, they are definitely on the table for release in future versions of OS X Lion. AirPlay Mirroring for the Mac will allow a user to wirelessly mirror exactly what is shown on their Mac’s display to an Apple TV connected to a projector, television, or external monitor. AirPlay video streaming is also being integrated into QuickTime X.
This would be a fantastic addition to the conference room for corporate presentations and would sell a few more Apple TVs we would imagine.
iMessage for Mac info after the break:
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iPhone 4S iCloud TV advertisment
Following up on the first iPhone 4S Siri TV advertisement from last week, Apple has just released three new advertisements surrounding the iPhone 4S. The iCloud iPhone 4S advertisement shown above shows the out of the box iCloud integration for the iPhone 4S. Examples include downloading a song on the iPhone 4S and having it instantly appear on the user’s Mac, bookmark syncing between an iPhone 4S and an iPad 2, iWork document syncing, and Photo Stream.
New Siri and Camera ads are after the break:
According to Macotakara.jp, Apple has finished work on test units of a 15-inch LCD for an upcoming ultra-thin laptop from Apple. The report calls the new machine a 15-inch MacBook Air, but in all likelihood it’s a thinner 15-inch MacBook Pro. The report also says that this new MacBook Pro will lose the optical drive, which seems like the direction Apple is heading towards. The new machine as a whole was reportedly in late testing stages since July, but today’s report means Apple is already done with testing and moving towards test production of the computers.
A touching eulogy delivered to the New York Times by Steve Jobs’ sister Mona Simpson.
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On the iPhone 4S launch date just a couple of weeks ago, we broke the news that developer Steven Troughton-Smith had successfully ported the Siri user-interface and some of the underlying code from the iPhone 4S onto the iPhone 4. The port was functional except for the most important part: talking to Apple’s servers. Now, Troughton-Smith has followed up with Chpwn to get the server fully working on an iPhone 4 and iPod touch.
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Exclusive in-depth iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S Siri comparison video
Troughton-Smith exclusively provided 9to5Mac with the above high-quality video that shows Siri fully working on an iPhone 4. The video not only shows the Siri functionality on an iPhone 4, but is in depth and shows a side-to-side comparison against its newer, faster sibling, the iPhone 4S. In addition, our video shows the Siri Dictation in action. A video showing the iPod touch port is after the break. Troughton-Smith also shared with us some specifics about the porting.
Troughton-Smith tells us that an iPhone 4S jailbreak was necessary in order to accomplish the task of porting the proper files for Siri’s servers to connect to an iPhone 4. I also sat down with Troughton-Smith for an exclusive interview about the port:
A 3D model of Las Vegas Strip created by Apple purchased C3
Since the original iPhone’s debut in 2007, Apple’s iOS devices have made use of an Apple-built Google Maps application to provide users with a quick glance at driving directions, traffic, route guidance, current location information, and details about destinations. Like with most sections of Apple’s business, the company is continually innovating, looking to take products to the next level.
A few years ago, Apple set out to seemingly reinvent this iOS mapping experience. As 9to5Mac reported in 2009, Apple scooped up their own mapping software development company called Placebase. In the summer of last year, Apple went one step further in their obvious pursuit of a completely in-house mapping solution and acquired a 3D mapping firm called Poly9.
A third mapping company for Apple…
Apple engineers are in the process of contacting iPhone 4S owners in order to determine the cause of alleged battery life issues. One iPhone owner told the Guardian that Apple engineers “installed a monitoring program” on his iPhone to diagnose the source of the problem:
“I then got a call from a senior [Apple] engineer who said he had read my post and was ‘reaching out’ to users for data and admitted this was an issue (and that they aren’t close to finding a fix!) and asked lots of questions about my usage and then asked if he could install the file below and that he would call back the day after to retrieve the info. I extracted the file from my Mac after a sync and emailed it to him. He was incredibly helpful and apologetic in the typical Apple way!”
The unnamed iPhone user was apparently experiencing a “10% drop in standby every hour”, he turned off location services and Siri in an attempt to troubleshoot which new features exclusive to the iPhone 4S might be causing the battery loss to no avail. We first reported about users complaining about the iPhone 4S’s battery draining unexplainably fast a couple weeks ago. The issue seems to only be affecting a small number of users, although the Apple discussion boards are still full of people experiencing similar problems. If this account with an Apple engineer is to be believed, it looks like Apple is at least acknowledging the issue even if they “aren’t close to finding a fix”. We’ll keep you posted as we learn more.
The moment I read the “I’ve Cracked the TV” quote from the Steve Jobs bio, I knew what the subject of the next few months at the rumor mill would be. Here it is in context:
“‘I’d like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use,’ [Jobs told Isaacson]. ‘It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud.’ No longer would users have to fiddle with complex remotes for DVD players and cable channels. ‘It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it.’”
That seems to be a lot more certain than Jobs was last year at the D8 conference when he took a question from an audience member. In it, he laid out some very important things that no one is really talking about.
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(Flashless)
The whole clip is much more fascinating than much of what I’ve been reading over the past week. The interface that Jobs is talking about isn’t whether Apple will use Siri or 3D gestures or not. It is how to put a layer on top of everything else with a consistent UI. He gets down to the nitty gritty at 1:30-3:00:
Add a box on to the TV system. You can say well gosh I notice my HDTV has a bunch of HDMI ports on it one of them is coming from the set-top box I’ll just add another little box with another one. Well, you just end up with a table full of remotes, clutter of boxes, bunch of different UIs, and that’s the situation we have today. The only way that’s ever going to change is if you go back to step one and tear up the set top box and restart from scratch with a redesigned UI and present it to the consumer in a way they’re willing to pay for it. And right now there’s no way to do that. So that’s the problem with the TV market. We decided what product do we want the most, a better TV or a better phone? Well the phone won because there was no chance to do the TV because there’s no way to get it to market. What do we want a better TV or better tablet. Well a better tablet because there’s no way to get the TV to market. The TV is going to lose until there is a better go to market, or there’ll just be a bunch of TIVOs. That’s the fundamental problem. It’s not a problem of technology, it’s a go to market technology.
So the question becomes: How is Apple going to “tear up the set top box” and start over?
The Wall Street Journal reports that Andrea Jung, the CEO of Avon Products, Inc. and the Apple board member, is facing a scrutiny by the Securities and Exchange Commission over missteps at her company.
Longtime Avon Products Inc. Chief Executive Andrea Jung is fast losing her luster as a string of gaffes raises questions about her management skills. The latest bad news arrived Thursday, when Avon said it faces a pair of Securities and Exchange Commission inquiries. The cosmetics company also tossed out its sales targets, saying they are unreachable. Investors and analysts said those developments were perhaps less troubling than their impression that Avon has a pattern of operational missteps.
Avon shares dropped eighteen percent on the news. It wasn’t immediately clear how the development might reflect Apple, where Jung serves as one of the seven members of board of directors. In addition, Jung in December of 2010 became the co-lead director of Apple’s board to replace Jobs’s mentor and former Intuit CEO, Bill Campbell, also known as the ‘Coach’. Jung also heads the company’s compensation committee.
The third quarter of 2011 marks a shift in the cell phone biz as Samsung takes the smartphone crown from Apple and China’s ZTE rises to become the world’s fourth-largest cell phone vendor by volume and Apple slides to fifth place. The bad news for Cupertino arrives just as the company for the first time in years missed Street expectations after shipping 17.07 million iPhones in the September quarter, a modest 21 percent annual growth and a notable 16 percent quarterly decline in units. As you recall, Apple in the June quarter sold 20.34 million iPhones, allowing them to beat Nokia and Samsung and become the world’s leading smartphone vendor, prompting Samsung to stop divulging smartphone and tablet shipments for competitive reasons.
Everyone was waiting for the new iPhone 4S.
Samsung today posted their quarterly earnings and they passed iPhone by an estimated ten million units. According to Reuters which cited a Strategy Analytics survey, Samsung shipped about 27.8 million smartphones, up nearly four times annually and 44 percent sequentially. This gave Samsung a 23.8 percent global market share in smartphones vs. 14.8 percent for Apple. Such a strong growth is attributed to their Galaxy smartphones, particularly the Galaxy S II model which sold ten million units in the five months since its introduction. Strategy Analytics attributed Samsung’s success to “a blend of elegant hardware designs, popular Android services, memorable sub-brands and extensive global distribution”, adding:
After just one quarter in the top spot, Apple slipped behind Samsung to second position and captured 15 percent share. Apple’s global smartphone growth rate slowed to just 21 percent annually in Q3 2011, its lowest level for two years. We believe Apple’s growth during the third quarter was affected by consumers and operators awaiting the launch of the new iPhone 4S in the fourth quarter, volatile economic conditions in several key countries, and tougher competition from Samsung’s popular Galaxy S II model.
Apple also slid to fifth place in Strategy Analytics’s worldwide cell phone rankings as ZTE shipped 18.5 million handsets for a five percent global market share. Apple CEO Tim Cook said at the October 4 iPhone 4S introduction that iPhone had five percent share of the global cell phone market, hinting at Apple’s phone strategy:
via Fortune
Apple announced on Mac OS Forge today that they have open sourced their Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC). ALAC was introduced in 2004 as OS X’s core audio codec to compress audio files 40-60 percent without losing any quality. The codec is currently supported by Macs and the latest iOS devices.
The Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC) is a lossless audio codec developed by Apple and deployed on all of it’s platforms and devices for some years now. Apple is making the Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC) available as an open source project. Full details can be found on the Apple Lossless Audio Codec project page.
ALAC was reversed engineered in 2005, but more and more applications could begin to adapt the codec now that it’s open sourced. Currently Plex, VLC, Boxee, and XBMC feature the codec, and there are sure more to come. ALAC has been open sourced under the Apache license.
